The U.S. government dismissed Stanley Kubrick's scenario of an accidental nuclear war as too far-fetched. However, the scene where Group Captain Mandrake is trying to get through to the Pentagon with the code to recall the bombers, but doesn't have enough change for the pay phone, was shown at a session of Congress. Members said it raised legitimate questions about whether crucial information could find its way to the right people during a nuclear crisis.
The War Room contains a large table of food because Stanley Kubrick intended to end the film with a custard pie fight between the Russians and the Americans. He decided not to use the footage because he found it too farcical to fit with the satirical nature of the rest of the film. The only known public showing of the pie fight scene was at the 1999 screening of the film at London's National Film Theatre, following Kubrick's death.
There is a great deal of editing and cutting away shots in the sequence where Dr. Strangelove gets carried away in the War Room when his mechanical right hand makes Nazi salutes and tries to strangle him, mainly to cover up the cast around him cracking up with laughter.
This was the final collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and his producing partner James B. Harris. Harris left to begin his own directing career. Harris was involved in the early development stage of this production. It was during this stage that, according to Harris, Kubrick began to toy with the idea of turning it into a comedy.
Voted as one of The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time (Premiere, 2006), 14th Greatest Film of all time (Entertainment Weekly), and 3rd of 100 greatest comedies (American Film Institute).
When Slim Pickens was cast as Major Kong, he had never traveled outside the United States in his life. Production was delayed for over a month while he applied and got a passport to travel to England to film his scenes which were the very last scenes to be shot.
When Strangelove talks about the doomsday device, Turgidson says, "Strangelove. What is that, German?" The reply he receives is "He changed his name; it was originally Merkwuerdigliebe." This original name is a slightly altered version of the German term "Merkwuerdige Liebe", meaning "Strange love".
While shooting aerial footage over Greenland, the second unit camera crew accidentally filmed a secret US military base. Their plane was forced down, and the crew was suspected of being Soviet spies.